Because of the nature of its business, Microsoft can't provide the same kind of streamlined retail experience that Apple does, he said. Furthermore, the company's mission for its stores is complicated because partners may want a say in how their products are presented.

Still, Microsoft could leverage its retail stores to control the hardware specifications for Windows 7, the next major release of its client OS, in a strategy similar to one it took with a retail campaign it designed around Vista, Rosoff said.

To coincide with a multimillion-dollar Windows Vista marketing and advertising campaign last year, Microsoft opened a "store within a store" at partner retail outlets, and required PC makers to meet certain specs for the Windows Vista PCs sold in the store, he said.

"They said if you want it to be a feature in our retail environment, it has to have certain capabilities, boot faster, it can't be bogged down with junk," Rosoff said.

Once Microsoft has its own retail stores, it might try the same tack with future Windows PCs to maintain a strict level of quality for Windows 7 machines and other Microsoft-based consumer products sold in the stores, he said.